permaculture

["sal" <sals@rain.org>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "E. Ann Clark" <eaclark@uoguelph.ca>
To: <sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 7:29 AM
Subject: BC organic fruit victory


Folks:  I am forwarding this with permission from Linda Edwards, the
organic apple grower in B.C.  Ann

GENETIC ENGINEERING OF TREE FRUITS STOPPED IN
BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Research was undertaken by the federal Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre
in Summerland B.C., to genetically engineer a variety of tree fruits
with a gene that would prevent non-browning of the flesh or stems.  They
were working with a local company called Okanagan Biotechnology Inc. who
holds the patent for the gene in question.  Organic tree fruit growers
in the area found out this past winter that the research had reached the
field trial stage.    Although these trials would have been small and
hopefully well controlled, their ultimate result would have been
orchards of genetically engineered trees throughout the Okanagan and
Similkameen and the end of organic tree fruit production in those
valleys.
Organic growers in the Similkameen and the Okanagan valleys began by
educating themselves about genetic engineering.  The Internet and a
number of sympathetic scientists were a great help.  The Research
Station was informed of the growers concerns.  After several months of
exchanges of viewpoints, a public meeting and helpful intervention by
the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, the federal researchers made the
decision to discontinue the work.  The lack of support for this
technology in the conventional industry undoubtedly also contributed to
that decision.  The company has announced it is making plans to continue
elsewhere in Canada or the US.
The organic farm community is very relieved and looks forward to
relations with the Research Station returning to normal.

WHY WE WERE CONCERNED
All tree fruits require pollination to produce a crop.  A wide variety
of insects assist in this but growers ensure fruit set by renting bee
hives. Bees can fly four to five kilometers and therefore can transport
pollen for that distance.  Pollen is also transported in hives when they
are moved from one orchard to another over the pollination season.
Research is sometimes cited that says tree fruit pollen will not travel
more that 14 meters.  This is research done studying movement by wind,
something never considered to be an important factor in tree fruit
pollination.
When we expressed concern about possible pollination contamination, the
Research Station sent us an Agriculture Canada's publication "Regulating
the Products of Biotechnology" . This document advises organic farmers
concerned that they will not be able to certify their crops as organic
because of the potential for cross-pollination with neighbouring
biotechnology-derived crops,  to establish buffer zones (of non-organic
production) on their own farms that are acceptable to the body that
certifies their crop.  Bee flight of up to 5 kilometers plus the
movement of pollen via movement of hives as described above makes this
an unworkable and unacceptable option.

Any blossom (on a non-genetically engineered tree) pollinated by a bee
that has just visited a genetically engineered one will produce fruit
that will test positive for genetic modification. The seed of fruit
pollinated with pollen from a genetically engineered tree would contain
the transformed DNA and the vectors used to put it there.  This means in
whole fruit testing and in processed forms (juices, baby food etc.), it
would be easily detected.  This testing would be done by buyers for
health concerns.  It would also be done because the objections to
genetic engineering extend beyond health concerns to issues such as food
control and security and the possibility of negative environmental
factors.
Even though there may have been no foreign DNA in the fruit itself,
other changes could have occurred there.  Changes in everything from
nutrient content to toxin levels have happened with other engineered
organisms.  One of the engineered pollen nuclei helps to form the
endosperm that produces the hormones and growth regulators that catalyze
and regulate development of the fruit tissue. No one can say at this
time what differences there would have been because of this altered
endosperm or what secondary and unknown metabolites might have formed.
Nor would any testing have been carried out to determine if any such
changes had occurred.
This concern is shared by the US National Research Council and the
British Food Standards Agency who just released reports stressing the
need for improved testing of GM foods for allergies and toxins.

Also of immediate importance is that in today's markets, perception
becomes reality and just the knowledge that fruit (conventional or
organic) was from an area where such orchards existed, might be enough
for buyers to look elsewhere.  Organic fruit and orchards would become
decertified.   Conventional fruit growers would find themselves shut out
of an increasing number of markets.  At best, market awareness that
genetically engineered orchards existed in our area would have
necessitated expensive testing.  At worst, it would have been loss of
market share to areas where the possibility of this contamination could
not occur.
Ironically, it was the two success stories of the BC tree fruit industry
that were most immediately threatened by the non-browning technology.
The majority of conventional tree fruit growers have been experiencing
financial difficulties for a number of years due to competition with
larger players all over the world.  On the other hand, although the
number of organic growers keeps increasing, so has the demand for
organic produce by 20 to 25% per year for the past ten years.  All
surveys and indicators point to this continuing.  There are currently
about 900 to 1,000 acres of tree fruits (up from 40 acres ten years ago)
that are certified organic in the Okanagan and Similkameen.  In the
Similkameen, somewhere between one third to one half of the tree fruit
acreage is certified organic or in transition. Organic tree fruit
production is a profitable, rewarding industry that will continue to
attract more and more growers.
There is also a very successful, high-end, conventional cherry industry
locally whose markets include England. Marks and Spence and Tesco in
England were major buyers of cherries from this area last season.
Again, the reality or even the perception of GE tainted cherries would
threaten those markets.

Organic farmers in the Prairie Provinces can no longer grow canola where
there are growers in their area with genetically engineered crops
because of pollination contamination.  Thousands of acres of in-demand
and very profitable organic canola have gone out of production.  The
conventional growers are not prospering even with their high tech
crops.  There are a number of reasons for that including losing
lucrative European markets.  Conventional growers who are growing
mustards or non-genetically engineered canola are also locked out of
these markets because of possible contamination.
The organic growers of The Okanagan and Similkameen are happy that we
will not find ourselves in a similar situation.



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